https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IE17z3NvXo
14
The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night,
Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation,
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,
Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.
The sharp-hoof’d moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-spread wings,
I see in them and myself the same old law.
The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
I am enamour’d of growing out-doors,
Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or woods,
Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses,
I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out.
What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever.
From the 52 Stanzas of Song of Myself, I found the 14th one to be my favorite. From this, the video I chose is also a reading of the stanza by WhyPoetryMatters. In this section, Whitman describes the many subtle things in nature. He says that the most simple things such as walking on earth is hard to describe. My interpretation of this section was that, Whitman is telling us to enjoy the small things in life and be appreciative. I chose this video for this stanza because I enjoyed how the video was put together. The images that correspond and match with the words from the poem are very accurate to what Whitman is trying to describe to us. For example in the beginning of the video, at 0:10, the poem begins and a picture of wild gander flying through the night as a flock appears. It actually allowed me to see the feel of the gander flock flying the night. The picture allowed me to feel what I saw. I felt that the visuals was a very nice way to keep me engaged in a way. It provided me with a simple explanation or context for the words. Along with that, another thing that I found very appealing to me about this video was the fact that there was very light background music playing. Music allows the words to have feeling. When the music goes up, I know that it’s more serious and when the music is calm I know that the message being relayed is also calm. Another reason I chose this video was because, personally I am not very into poetry and I don’t read it very well. I enjoyed the way the author read it. Each pause and each slight change in tone had a meaning and allowed me to get into the mood of the words. The video was very well made and the narrator created a nice feeling for what the meaning to those words are. It allows people who aren’t interested in poetry to have someone else explain the poem through their tone, while still giving us the chance to intererate it for ourselves.